Aeroflot Open 2007: Evgeny Alekseev wins in style

2/25/2007 – The winner of the Russian championship superfinal also took clear first the Aeroflot Open 2007. Actually he completed a hattrick by winning the St. Petersburg Blitz Championship in between. Well done! Evgeny Tomashevsky finished second, outmatching Dmitry Jakovenko by the narrowest of margins. Big illustrated report by Misha Savinov.

Alekseev wins in Capablanca style

Report from Moscow by Misha Savinov

Grandmaster Evgeny Alekseev, the winner of the Russian championship superfinal,
took clear first the Aeroflot Open 2007 – for the first time in the tournament’s
history, by the way. In between Evgeny won the St. Petersburg blitz championship,
so the Aeroflot victory has completed a hattrick for him. Well done! Alekseev
is a well-rounded player. His ideal is Capablanca – simple but very sound
positional chess with small combinations. The presence of experienced Igor Khenkin,
who helped Evgeny at this tournament, added a touch of fine psychological approach
to the opponents, which yielded a couple of valuable victories.

The final rounds of the Aeroflot Open are under way

Evgeny Tomashevsky, another promising Russian, finished second, outmatching
Dmitry Jakovenko by the narrowest of margins – a single point in combined
rating of the opponents! Tomashevsky is also a positional player, but in a more
original way. The Saratov grandmaster may be lacking top opening preparation,
but he is a cunning strategist, and his hold is deadly.

Players determined to leave their mark at this prestigious chess tournament

Jakovenko is developing a Keres-syndrome – recently he finishes second
in every important tournament. The superfinal, Pamplona, Wijk aan Zee B, and
now Aeroflot – quite a streak! Make sure you bet on the right man in the
coming Poikovsky.

Chinese players Wang Yue and Ni Hua somewhat surprisingly participated in the
2nd place tie, winning their last round games. I admit I did not study their
games much, and cannot argue about their playing personalities. Overall the
Chinese participants made a significant impact in the Aeroflot this year, and
no wonder that two of them finished among the top prize winners.

Past winners, Baadur Jobava and Emil Sutovsky, exhausted each other in their
last-round encounter to make a draw, which placed them on 6th-9th, level with
Zoltan Almasi and Sergey Volkov. Jobava lived quite a relaxed life during the
whole event. For those thinking that it prevented him from a better score, I’d
like to respond that different people gain their energy from different sources,
and we are not in a position to judge. Emil Sutovsky recovered brilliantly after
two losses in the 2nd and 3rd rounds by winning four in a row, and missed a
win in the 8th round, playing a brilliant positional game against Wang Yue.

Big names on +2: Paco Vallejo and Alexander Khalifman

Vladimir Akopian was all the time close to the leaders, but a loss against
Jakovenko removed him from the contention. Krishnan Sasikiran, another rating
favorite, lost many rating points and didn’t get any prize money –
not unusual for top players at the Aeroflot opens. Linares man Paco Vallejo
started with 0/2, but saved the tournament on the distance, ending up on +2,
just like Alexander Khalifman and surprise man Stanislav Novikov. The latter
scored just half a point in three concluding rounds. Coincidently, the decline
occurred when Novikov’s games weren’t relayed on the official site.

Wang Yue squeezing Stanislav Novikov

I can draw two main conclusions from the Aeroflot 2007. First, the financial
situation of chess players is clearly improving, as many of them can pass on
a tournament with US $30,000 first prize. There were fewer top or close-to-top
players than in 2004 or 2005. Is that because of online poker? I doubt it. Second,
the investments of the Russian Chess Federation have begun to work sooner than
was expected. Ildar Khairullin and Ian Nepomniachtchi, both 16, felt at home
among the 2550-2700 grandmasters, and three other participants of the recent
superfinal simply won the tournament. Pay attention to the fact that in the
last round Alekseev defeated the Olympiad champion Gabriel Sargissian. Selecting
a team for the next international competition will not be as automatic as before.

Finally, the Aeroflot is still is world’s best pool for young growing
players, who can come through the whole ladder from C tournament to A1 in a
couple of years. The Chinese realize this better than any other nation, and
their delegation was one of the biggest. I am surprised that there were no Americans
(except Alexander Ivanov). Playing in the Aeroflot helped Aronian and Carlsen
(albeit wasn’t too lucrative for both), and one should not miss such a
training opportunity. Even if your name is Hikaru!

FIDE Vice President Zurab Azmaiparashvili and arbiter Geurt Gijssen

The Izmailovo hotel offered a wide choice of distractions, and all the players
I talked to were quite satisfied with their stay in Moscow and the social life
at the tournament. Two national TV sports channels covered the tournament in
news reports every day, and interviewed the winner on the last day. Turkish,
Indian and Israeli journalists were very active in the press center, flooding
their websites with last-minute updates. Spectators kept coming to watch games
in the tournament hall and on the monitors (although often they were keener
to kibitz in fast control games in the analysis room). Everything was how it
should be at the Guinness book chess event.

GM Nikola Sedlak plays time odds games with friends in the hotel hall

Football, basketball, tennis matches – these are short-term, commercially
valuable, concentrated excitement. Chess opens are more like music festivals.
There is money on stake, but first and foremost there is environment. People
meet, talk, go out, and get happier. This is invaluable. And chess in this case
is just a pretext. Come and see.

GM Wang Yue’s with a flask of air Chinese fresher

Tomashevsky against Jakovenko in the round 9: a quick draw
to the former’s relief – their individual score was 0-4

Kasparov's second Yuri Dokhoyan studing the games
of his current pupils, the Kosintseva sisters

Ten-year-old Ilya Nyzhnyk played blitz against all comers

Alisa Galliamova explores "Secrets of Chess Players' Thinking"
at the book stand

The remarkable Ms Kateryna Lahno

Minasian and Novikov – each could go to Dortmund in case of winning
their 9th round game

Getting enough to drink was not a serious problem at the Aeroflot
Open

See also

2/23/2007 – In Morelia it is currently all about chess. Our host are extremely gratious and treat us like kings. But not everyone is satisfied with the luxurious restaurants and fine South American wine. Some of us will insist on going out into the countryside, to see the "real Mexico." And to smell, tast and hear it. We invite you to an extraordinary culinary adventure.Discuss

1/17/2007 – That means to take stock in the middle of an event – another German word that should enter the English language, together with zugzwang and zeitnot. After the first four of 13 rounds we bring you a summary of the games of round four, by Steve Giddins, as well as all necessary tables, schedules and statistics.Discuss

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